Her Dragon To Slay(52)

Their Healer, Siobhan, worked diligently to clean and stitch her wounds. Rayne cringed when she shaved a small patch of Kyndel’s hair. His mate hadn’t seemed the least bit prissy or high maintenance but he knew how females were about their hair so she was probably going to skin him alive for the little bald spot she now had at the back of her head. Siobhan had assured him it was necessary and anything that helped her heal was something he was going to make happen. Kyndel was still 100% human and Siobhan had limited experience with treating humans that did not share their partner’s abilities from the mating bond. She explained that staying as close as possible to human medical practices was the safest for Kyndel.

Siobhan continually reassured him that his mate was healing extremely well. He knew it was true from the hours he sat vigil by her bed holding her hand and talking to her. He had felt her growing strength. There were even times he would get feelings of warmth and security from her. He was once again awestruck by her trust in him and overjoyed that their bond was growing even after all that had happened. But all of that was secondary to the fact that he needed her to wake up. He needed her to open those beautiful emerald eyes and look at him, give him a dose of her sass and try to intimidate him with that one eyebrow cocked at him. He wanted to pull her into his lap and kiss those pouty pink lips until they were both naked, sweaty and wrapped around each other. The waiting was killing him. Watching her hour after hour lying there, looking small and helpless was absolutely making him crazy. He would gladly trade places with her. As a matter of fact, he had prayed for just that over and over since bringing her to the Healer.

She would wake up and she would recover, he continued the mantra over and over. Among all the things that made her absolutely perfect and hotter than hell was her fearlessness and she had shown more courage than he could have ever imagined on that hillside. He wanted her more than his next breath. There was absolutely no feeling equal to being with her. Whatever he had to do to have her back with him he would do. Kyndel was meant to be his. She made his world a better place - complete. No one or nothing would take her from him.

He knew they had so much to learn about one another, neither knew the other had even existed three days ago and now he couldn’t imagine one minute without her in it. She had to be ok. He would wither and die without her. Andrew, the complete fucking idiot that he was, had been right about one thing, if he’d killed her on that rock, Rayne would have lost his mind. As soon as she was awake and they were mated he was going to hunt that son of a bitch down and rip him limb from limb. To hell with the Elders and their Tribunal, that son of a bitch was his.

When Aaron and Aidan had come back to tell him what had happened on the trip to bring the traitor to justice, all he could think about was the pleasure he would get from his hands around that Andrew’s neck. He actually imagined squeezing the bastard he had once called friend, until his eyes bulged and he ceased to breathe. Rayne wanted him dead, forever dead, for daring to touch Kyndel. The fact that she now lay unconscious in their Healer’s home because of the asshole’s actions started a rage burning inside of him that only watching Andrew’s blood flow would extinguish.

He looked over his shoulder as Lance entered Kyndel’s room. “How’s she doing?” his lifelong friend asked.

“Still the same, Siobhan was here an hour ago and said she’s improving but dammit I need her to wake up. The waiting is killing me.”

“She will,” Lance moved to the end of her bed. “You have to give her body time to heal. She’s so much more fragile than we are but she’s a fighter, Rayne, you know that. A little bump on the head is not going to keep your Spitfire down.”

Rayne smiled at the use of the nickname his men had decided on during one of their visits to bring him food and keep him company. Royce had said her hair looked even more like fire against the white sheets Siobhan kept on the beds for the sick and injured than it had when he had first met her in the woods. It was Aidan that had squeezed his shoulder and said, “You have quite the little spitfire on your hands there, Commander.” Rayne was so glad to see the old Aidan creeping back into his friend that he had actually smiled. They would all need him at his best to capture his crazy brother.

All of the men had laughed and decided Spitfire was just the name for his Kyndel, so it stuck. One or all of them were coming almost every hour to check on her and to make sure he was at least eating. They would stand by the bed and tell her some silly story about his growing up or his early years of training, always referring to her as “Spitfire”. She was probably going to kick a lot of Dragon Guard ass when she woke up but he didn’t care, he just wanted his mate back.